Blessed to Believe

Happy Monday, ladies! It’s a new day. A new week. And His mercies are new to us today. Can I get an amen?

As I was driving to work this morning each of you were at the forefront of my mind. For one, I knew I’d be greeted by a couple thousand comments to approve this morning with much joy, thank you, SSMT (I logged on Saturday for a bit, but never touched my computer yesterday. Sometimes you just need a break, you know?) And also, as I was remembering that I had yet to post my verse, I thought maybe it might encourage some of you.

I participated in the very first SSMT a couple years ago, but then didn’t join in two years ago. Little did I know I’d be coming on staff at LPM in 2011 or I might have jumped on the bandwagon that year as well, but alas, they still let me attend the celebration. Grin. Anyway, I think the reason I’m really excited to be jumping in with both feet this time is because I’m really fighting for some sanity and faith here. And I’ve found that when I’m really trying to find my faith is when the enemy really likes to attack it as best as he knows how. I’m sure no one can relate.

You know how when you’re younger and your parents tell you something and you choose not to listen because you’ve got this thing called life figured out and what do they know? Well, that’s kind of how I feel right now. I’ve been told, have witnessed and know that to stay with it, I’ve got to saturate my mind with Truth. With God’s Word. I have to hide His Word in my heart and mind. I’m hindering nothing but my own faith by choosing not to do that. So this time around I know what I’m fighting for. And I’m serious about it. The effects that His Word has on my heart and mind are life-giving and freeing, not vice versa.

Sorry for the tangent, but in case you were curious, we’re all for scripture memory around here, in case that wasn’t made obvious already. Laughing.

Truth be told, being involved in a lot of active ministries means I tend to fall more on the busy side than the bored side, and quite frankly, I love it. Who likes to be bored? However, a balance is indeed needed and I’ve learned to create some margin or else my faith will go to the dumps because I spend more time doing than just being, praying and cultivating. I know that when I start to get really irritable and annoyed with people is when I need to put myself in time out. In fact, this weekend I did just that and it was water to my soul. It was very good. But boy did I have to fight.

Maybe it’s because I just started Believing God, or maybe it’s because the Lord is doing a new thing, or maybe, just maybe, the Lord is slowly revealing more of Himself to me, but I want to believe God. I need to believe God. That He is for me. That He is good. That He is God.

“Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” Luke 1:45

Blessed is she who has believed. I don’t know about you, but I want that to be said about me. About my faith. That I believed God and took Him at His word. Maybe this word is just for me today, and if so, I’ll claim it.

It’s Monday.

What do you desperately need to believe God for today?

Dare we take Him at His Word and believe Him this week? Believe that what He has said to us will be accomplished? Fulfilled?

I even dare you to share it with us today.

Because, Sister. He can. He is able. You can believe Him. And so can I.

After all, “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:24

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231 Responses to “Blessed to Believe”

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I need to believe that the Lord loves me and accepts me where I am now, no matter what, and that he is WORKING with me where I am and he sees that my heart’s desire is to honor him no matter the cost (even though I’m not very good at that right now!).

After I wrote this comment last night, I got on the phone with a sister (not a Siesta sister, to clarify), and didn’t tell her anything about how I was feeling in regard to what I wrote above. We prayed together when we were finished talking and she prayed that I wouldn’t have fear, but that I would know the Lord is working in my life and will come through for me at the right time. Very prophetic and I’m so thankful that the Lord put that on her heart to let me know he hears me Thank you, Lord, and Father God!

I need to believe that God can and will heal. I have had a mammogram and further testing that has resulted in anxiety over inconclusive results. I see a doctor this week to discuss how best to proceed. My husband had a severe upper respiratory virus that has caused him to lose all his sense of smell and taste. There is not much hope in it returning, but I keep asking God to do what man says is impossible. We are both very discouraged but trying to trust the Lord and stay in His Word. There are many other stresses in our lives right now, and I feel about at the end of myself! I keep saying, “I can do all things through Christ.”

Sheryl, Just went through this very same thing over the holidays. My prayers are with you…The not knowing is so hard but alway know our one true God will never leave you..Just when you think you can’t…YOU can do ALL things through HIM who gives you strength…

Sheryl,
I went through the same thing several years ago. I had a lump in my breast. I had already had the second mammogram and ultrasound. My appointment with the surgeon was on a Monday morning and on Sunday evening, our pastor and elders of the church laid hands on me and annointed me. At that very moment, the Lord told me to believe Him for my healing and I did. The next morning, the surgeon could see the lump on all my scans but when he examined me and rescanned me, it was gone! Praise God! The Lord does still heal! I am praying for you! Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding! You can believe Him for He does what He says! God Bless!

Lindsee….I just have to say thank you for being transparent and giving us a glimpse into your life. You are an encouragement to me and I think I’m about 20 years older than you….if we were to meet I just know we’d be great friends. Thanks for being real. I get excited thinking about how the Lord is going to keep blessing your life in His exceedingly abundantly beyond fashion. (It will be worth the wait.)

Oh girl! I was just sitting here praying for The Lord to give me a word about a loooong battle that I’ve been fighting. I know we are about to come out on the other side of this trial, but I still fight doubt and discouragement. Tonight was one of those times, and The Lord really used this post to re-energize me and encourage me that He is faithful to his promises and He will finish the work He started. Thanks do much for this post! -Lyndsay

This week as I prepare to have neck fusion surgery I struggle yet know deep and believe that God is in control and will take care of all things: The money part of it is alwyas a huge issue, time off from work which ties in with the money issue, being single and living alone – how am I going to take care of myslef/house while recovering and wanting no help from anyone!!!! Also struggling with my attitude concerning my neurosurgeon.

I need to believe God when He says He can change hearts. I am a teacher and am desperately crying out to God for some of my students – for their hearts and souls to be given to God. I need to believe that He can transform an attitude, a heart, a person and take it to be His own.

Allison,
I am not a teacher but I work with troubled teens. My heart breaks each time I see a child or a teen who is in a path of destruction. On my most discouraging days I try to remember that I can be a light to them. I can, through Christ alone be a listening ear and someone they can believe is REAL. I pray you are encouraged today, knowing each of your students were places in your classroom for a reason. God is using you in ways you may never see. Be blessed my friend.

Thank you for the encouraging words. “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.” Lucke 27:13-14. God saved by grandson Charlie who was born 3 months premature weighing 1 lb 14 oz. He was in the NICU for 3 months. God healed him several times in the NICU when we thought we’d lost him. Today he is 7 years old and has some major behavioral and sensory problems. I pray daily that God would heal him from the anger and attachment issues he struggles with. Some days I am so fearful of how Satan would be allowed to use for evil what God has meant for good in allowing Charlie to live. I too want to be called “blessed because I have believed what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.” I am choosing to believe God for all things.

As a twenty-seven year old, how this post has blessed me today. You see, I have been a believer for a long time – even since I was a babe. I’ve pretty much grown up knowing who Jesus is, what he has done for me, and all the spiritual answers. I was the girl, though, who unlike her Christian girls got married “late” for her age (just reached 8 months).

I have encountered my first close Jesus-loving friend, who has just recently been divorced after a marriage of 4 years (she just turning 26). There is so much pain not only for her, but how it has so affected me and our group of close friends. In less than months she has moved on and found a new boyfriend. Unfortunately, what you have described today in your post is me. I want to love my friend and be there for her, but there is so much pain and concern for her as she heads into a new relationship. So much I want to be able to control, to say, to heed caution to. Yet, after an intense conversations, I may have been too harsh. Not graceful or patient. Perhaps, sinful in how I spoke to her out of frustration. Not loving.

When you said, “I spend more time doing than just being, praying and cultivating. I know that when I start to get really irritable and annoyed with people is when I need to put myself in time out.” Boy do I need a time out. I have not faithfully been in His Word to even begin speaking truth to my friend. Clearly, I need Jesus. I need to re-prioritize my own life and get out this dry plank in my own eyes before I even began to pluck the needle from hers.

I pray that I would become faithful to my Lord first and foremost and that he would re-enter as center of my life, knowing then his love can then pour from me onto my friend (and onto my husband, who so graciously has loved me and is sitting next to me at this coffee shop after I asked him for a quiet time with my Lord).

I am desperately trying to believe that God will do in a relationship in my life what he said he would do. I am tired, and it looks hopeless. Actually hopeless was about 3 months ago. I’m not sure what comes after hopeless, but I know that is where I’m standing. By all human standards it is time to call it over and to say I must have misheard what God said. But I know in my heart what he has said and then continued to say for months. Even though it looks hopeless and there is no way that I can see this changing, I will believe for another day that my Daddy is going to do what he told me he would do even though it will take a miracle bigger than I can imagine.

Joy,
I just wanted to comment in response to your post. I am in the same boat as you are and I can totally relate to how you are feeling. I’m tired and struggling with doubt and negative thoughts ( and people). When I read this blog post and particularly your comment it gave me a boost of confidence. Just wanted to do the same for you! God is faithful!

Thanks Lindsee! I really needed to hear those words. I think I was feeling the same way this weekend. The verses I chose this time, Psalms 63:3-4, should be easy because I’ve had more to praise God for here lately you’d think verses that say “…my lips shall praise You, I will bless You while I live. I will lift my hands….” would be simple right? Yet this has been the hardest! Yesterday at church, I just had a meltdown trying to sing praises to Him. It must have hit me just how shallow my praises have been.

And then when you said “maybe it’s because the Lord is doing a new thing, or maybe, just maybe, the Lord is slowly revealing more of Himself to me” that also resonated in my soul. I’m sure God wants me not only to believe Him more but to show others that I really, really BELIEVE HIM!

So I too want to join you in being known a one who believed God and took Him at His word. Count me in!

Wisdom, praying for wisdom concerning a decision my church family needs to make soon. Our church is struggling and we are looking for direction whether to merge with another church, hire an assistant pastor or something else
.

Don’t want to go into details, but every direction has pros & cons for our situation, but we are praying and believing & waiting on God to be “a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

Angie, Chillicothe, MO
“So eat your meals heartily, not worrying about what others say about you – you’re eating to God’s glory, after all, not to please them. As a matter of fact, do everything that way, heartily and freely to God’s glory.” 1 Corinthians 10:31, The Message.

I continue to believe that this battle with drugs my son is dealing with for the past five years will end with my Warrior King triumphing in victory. Throughout this battle my husband of 30 years had another affair and destroyed our family, our son’s life further, the ministry we shared at our church and my already broken heart. I am gaining strength through God’s banner of love and promises, but I am tired. I am just sitting now allowing God to hold me as I used hold my son after that nice warm bath before bed. I believe He will deliver my son. Kim in Deer Park, Texas

I KNOW GOD will deliver your son! Just keep believing in what you know to be true and continue to stand in the gap for your son and husband! I know your tired,but God will give you strength has an eagle and you will run and not get weary and you will walk and not faint! We will lift your arms up and pray with you! You are not alone in this battle, keep warriors around you. In our weakness, He is made strong!
It is God’s will that no man perish and we will take back what the enemy has stolen! I have been here and I feel your pain! BUT, joy comes in the morning!! Love and prayers!

Thank you, Beth, for your post.
I believe God will bless me with a Christian husband.
One who loves the Lord and wants to serve him all of his days.
I know it seems trivial but I am 51 and have waited so long and so faithfully.
I know my God is awesome!!! So very awesome!!!

I am doing my best to believe God will provide me with a job with insurance. I’ve been unemployed since early Dec. I’m on unemployment but it’s not enough to cover my basic expenses (COBRA is expensive). I’m learning a lot about myself, God’s blessings, and patience in the process. I’m wondering what He has in store for me. Here’s to anticipating the future for I know He has plans for me. Now if I can just remember it on a daily basis. Guess I’ll be printing up Jeremiah 29:11 and putting it on my fridge, in my car and carry it in my heart.

I just finished going through Believing God for the second time recently and it is a life-changing study! I am believing God to draw my grown children closer to him and to open the door for a permanent job for my son that enables him to utilize the talents God has given him. I am believing that He loves my children even more than I do and is working in their lives. I am thanking Him in advance for what He will do! Thanks so much for your transparency and always inspiring me to grow my faith.

Oh my word! I honestly had to look twice at the name of who posted this to make sure it wasn’t ME. Other than only going through Believing God just once, the rest has been torn from my journal! Especially about “opening the door for a permanent job for my son that enables him to utilize the talents God has given him.” Just this morning I reminded my own son that God will open the door for just the right job.
I needed the reminder from this whole post – to believe Him AND to thank Him in advance.

I really need to believe God and am believing God to get rid of the anxiety attacks that have been plaguing me lately. I’ve had three pretty bad breakdowns,always at night and usually after having to get alot done in a little time. I’ve been pulling back as well to get back into more alone-time with God AND I’m praying my Scriptures again that helped me get rid of these attacks a few years ago. I know God brought me out of panic attacks to bring me into a spacious place, and I’m standing firm on that belief. I’ve bowed the knee to His sovereignty, and I’ve begun to speak His Word out loud. “My eyes are ever on the Lord for only He can release my feet (mind) from the snare.”

Oh Lindsee… you and I are truly sisters in this one!! Your words could have been my words, and though I have read Luke a thousand times, this verse has not stuck out to me!! I needed it though… and I have been praying for the past few days for my next memory verse to present itself. I was feeling very frustrated in my morning quiet time today when none had come to surface STILL!!… and now here we are. I am going to use this verse as my verse #3. I needed it . I will hold on to it. It is food for my soul right now!… and Mary’s words that follow will be my study this week.
Thank you!!

I LOVE Luke 1:45! I have been clinging to it for several months. I need to believe, no matter how hopeless things look by the world’s standards, that the Lord will turn my covenant husband’s heart back to Him and then back to me and our 3 sons. God WILL restore my marriage & our family!

I need to believe that he will give me strength as I so need today. That he will wrap his arms around me and comfort me. Thank you so much for this post,sometimes I fall back,(in scripture), but He is SO AWESOME and just getting my BIBLE and reading has brought me Peace tonight.

Thanks Lindsee for your lesson today. Right now I am struggling with believing that God will do what he says and that he hasn’t abandoned me. We lost a grandfather to my kids on March 20, 2012. Two days later I lost my mom suddenly. It was quite a shock and I had so much anger. But my gut finally caught up with my heart and head. Satan can really use feelings and emotions to set you back! Then just as we finally almost made it a year with no life loss in my family, my sweet sister in law was diagnosed the Wednesday after Thanksgiving with lung cancer. We lost her on January 2nd. I know God promises never to give us more than we can handle. He must know something I don’t. It has been a long hard year.
It hasn’t been easy and I haven’t always dealt with it pretty. But I can say God walked with me all the way. He is binding up the wounds and has brought me closer to him day by day.
Jan

My dear Sister, I do so understand and feel for you. Our family has been through 3 deaths in 5 months in addition to other illnesses, disappointments, and unwelcome “surprises.” I know what you mean when you say it feels like more than we can handle, because we can’t – but HE can! In my Bible study are 4 dear women 80 and up who have been through so much in their lives, and they have believed God over and over. In the midst of many losses, I see in them a true peace as they allow their Savior to heal their broken hearts. Their trust in Him and their strength is amazing, and is proof to me that all this really works! Much love to you!

I need to love and connect with our older adopted child like our biological children. I know God made our family His way. I just don’t feel the same level of attachment to (or from) our newest addition although its been quite a long time since we became a family. Clinging to the FACT of Gods sovereignty and plan.

Dear Anonymous,
I have been on the opposite end of where you are. I was adopted and now that the parents that raised me are gone, my siblings have made it clear they don’t see me as part of the family. I guess I would say the greatest gift you can give them is a love that is consistent, not perfect mind you, consistent. Love that is always there no matter what – a love their heart can trust in. You’re already off to a good start dear sister, your desire shows the seed has been planted. May I join hands with you and pray and agree with you that God is going to water and tend to that seed and make it grow. It is my prayer that it will not just remain a seed but flourish into a beautiful garden that only He can plant and cause to grow. Blessings to you dear sister. Praying for you.

Hey! Lindsee!!!
I am trying to believe He really wants me to write for Him!! I have struggled with this forever~ I am trying to talk myself out of writing!! I have been told I should write and so I have done some little things but I am arguing with God steady. My reasoning is this— There are a million wonderful stories much better than mine which never get a nod from a publisher, What makes me think I have something different to say? What makes me think someone will even want to read it?? How do I know? The thing is this, noone does know but God does!!! I need to trust Him on this. I need to know it is His leading and not just my ego trip thing. Right now I know it is gona cost alot of money to be published. I joined the Chirstian Writer’s Guild and I know it is a wonderful program and I am learning the nuts and bolts of writing and I am really enjoying it so I will just see where it goes. Do I dare trust God is gona use it to his glory some how??? Absolutely! I do not know how or even if yet at this point!!!
Bless you Lindsee! Let’s have a great one!!
Betty M

I need to believe that He loves me. No matter how much hurt, loss and suffering has filled my life in the past, there is an end to the wilderness. There is a time to step into the Promise Land. I need to believe God for healing in my life. I want to shine forth like Job whose second half of his life was so much better than the first because he refused to give up and trusted God no matter what.
I can’t tell you how strongly your words hit me. I feel exactly the same way.
I too have learned the absolute life saving necessity of stay in His word and staying close to Him.
Thanks so much for sharing this !

Believing for our family and close friends, that God will help us through financial difficulty. Praying for the funds for many bills which are past due, urgent bills. And for friends and Internet friends who have the very same needs.

I just want to thank you for the encouragement you gave me in what you shared this morning in your share “Blessed to Believe” – and the two scriptures you gave ie. Luke 1:45 and 1 Thess. 5.24.
I have allowed myself to become so discouraged and vunerable and seem to never overcome certain obstacles and I know this is because I am not saturating myself in His Word. I do know that He is for me.. I certainly don’t deserve His unfailing love and grace but I am so glad for it as I know among anything else, He is always with me, and ever present waiting for me to come to Him.. It is only me.. needing to put all else aside so that I can sit in his presence and drink from His Living Water and let the Word fill and saturate my thoughts, and heart and in so doing begin to live out His Word.
Thank you.

I am believing for a healing for my daughter Heather. A healing of mind, body and spirit. She is in 4th stage liver disease. I know God can heal her. I need to stay strong in faith, sometime I’m a little shaky but I am holding on and believing.

Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished! Luke 1:45 This is exactly what the Lord needs me to be meditating on today!! I need to believe that the Lord can and will use me to grow his Kingdom and that His will be done in me, through me and with me!! Thank you for this, God always meets us right where we are doesn’t he? God bless!!

Thank you for this post. Trusting in God for a job and I strongly believe that God was speaking to me through you and His word — blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has promised will be accomplished! I love this scripture! Amen!

Thank you Lindsee! I desperately need to believe that God will pull my child from the wrong path & heal both of my children from the emotional holes, heal their relationship with each other and surround them with His love, fill them with His Joy and Peace & that God would provide them with spouses who love them & love God.

I need to believe God that I have value and purpose as I am. I do not have to be like others, and it is not their confirmation I need to seek. I want to believe that I have value for who I am and what I offer. I want to believe that I can be loved for who I am. I don’t need to become someone else for others to love me. I want to be secure in you God!

You have put words to my exact thoughts. I struggle with this often. I have to remember that I have an audience of only one who matters. May the words of my mouth and the medidations of my heart be pleasing in His sight, my Lord and my Redeemer.

Dora,
Please know that someone has heard you, heard your pain, heard your frustration, heard your desparation in just two little sentences. As much as I want to encourage you myself personally, there’s no need – God’s Word itself is very clear that yes you can trust Him. 2 Cor. 1:20 for example says that all the promises of God in Him (Jesus) are Yes and in Him Amen, to the glory off God through us! One version says all the promises of God find their Yes *in Him*. Praying for you to trust Jesus for your healing. He’s there for you and has provided intercessors until you can come on your own. He *loves* you Dora.

I need to believe that He is there, and that He hasn’t left me. I need Him to hold me and pull me out of this desperate pit I have fallen into. I need to trust that He has plans for me. Jeremiah 29:11, “For I have plans for you, say the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope”. Trust, believe and know that He is God, and He loves me.

Summer, Clearwater, FL
Ephesians 4:1-3 (For February)
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

This is a year of getting down to basics for me, of believing that God cares about the practicalities of my life and is setting me free from old thought patterns, habits, and anything where I’ve said in my heart, “Well, this is the way it’s always been so I guess this is how it will always be.” I am doing SSMT for the first time this year because I want to be a doer of the word, not just a hearer.

I am believing that God is able to do “Exceedingly More”. That He CAN deliver my son from his drug addiction and that He CAN give me peace to wait and the faithfulness to keep on praying and hoping when things seem unchanged.

Lindsee, when I read your post I got a lump in my throat and my eyes began to leak. I needed that verse at just that moment. Just wanted to thank you for being sensitive to the Spirit. Thank you for being a willing vessel for God to speak through His Word. He is so extravagant! I just can’t stand it!

What’s a Siesta?

Isn't "siesta" the Spanish word for nap? Yes! Then why are our LPM blog readers called siestas? One time Beth typed out the word "sistas," referring to our blog readers, and her spell checker wanted her to change it to "siestas." The name stuck! You can read about it here. If you read this blog, consider yourself a siesta! It's just another word for sister.